As part of the approval for this, I was requested to update my Hobbit edit to 5.1 surround sound too, so it can also be listed. If anyone’s interested, that’s here.

I’ve recently updated this to full 5.1 surround sound, so that it can also be listed on IFDB. It’s polished and complete.

I’ve just got the news that the edit is now finally IFDB approved!

Thank you all so much! ❤️

Oh, and I must especially emphasise here, Hal’s help over at Fanedit.org getting this over the line! I’m exceptionally grateful.

Acbagel has already seen this feedback, but he deserves it in public too!

Thoughts

• This is absolutely incredible. I can’t gush about it enough. There have been a few Mando movies hitting the key plot beats from the series, but nothing has done what this does, which is to restructure the existing content to add so much more value. Rather than covering the full plot of season one, this episode is much more of a character piece, and we really get the full picture of Din Djarin’s backstory, character, and challenges. It’s very satisfying, still action-packed, and amazing work.
• Episodes 1,2,6,3 really are the perfect introduction to Mando as a character. Episode 6, the prison break, does lots more great worldbuilding that absolutely belongs in Mando’s first appearance. In this movie, we now get such a complete picture of Mando’s backstory, Mandalorian culture, and the state of the galaxy post-OT. Perfect marriage.
• As we’d hoped, splitting the Grogu story around the prison break works so well. It’s now his final falling-out with the world of bounty hunting, and back into the Mandalorian creed and his adoptive son. Excellent.
• The use of the flashbacks was perfect, and I love how Acbagel took it further to combine Mando’s childhood rescue with the current-timeframe rescue scenes. It deepens the thematic links between Grogu and Mando’s Mandalorian culture. And I’m amazed how many nice moments you found to parallel - the shutting carrier with the bunker, and even the Mandalorian nods. Excellent work.
• The reintroduction of the Jawas worked well. There’s good Mando and Kuiil stuff in there, and a bit more nice worldbuilding. This was a good call.
• The audio work was perfect, it all flowed just great.

This was an absolutely excellent edit, executed very very well. I loved it, and I think it’s really going to impress. I have always loved this approach of trying to retain as much as possible from the show whilst just tightening it and presenting it well, and this movie is the perfect kick-off to that. It would make an excellent introduction to the show for a new viewer.

Glad you’re enjoying reading the process!

I’m never done done, so please always feel free to suggest things! This is totally a living project.

1. I did end up using ‘Snips’ in a few places.
2. That’s a nice nod, but I wanted to use ‘Force’ since it’s got a lot of implications - the military force, the darksiders on the rise, and the dark side of the force rising within Anakin. I like titles which can be read in a few ways.
3. I did end up going a little different with that text. Originally I tried to explain all three stories, but that didn’t really work. Now it’s still six sentences, but I took a more informal ‘storyteller’ tone with it.

Jar Jar Bricks said:

By far my favorite change I’ve seen so far was him putting Qui-Gon’s crystal in Kenobi’s saber chest. I can finally have my fandom explanation that Luke is using Qui-Gon’s lightsaber crystal in episode 6.

Oooooh that is a sweet change.

This sounds incredible - I cannot wait!

Looking at your edit sheet, I really like your solution to the bounty hunters’ fates in the prison heist. Great middle ground!

yoshif8tures said:

Okay so, so far out of season 2, you could make an arc out of episodes 2, 3, 7, 8, 10 and 12 so far, of which episode 12 is a must watch.

Totally agree with this. 7 could intercut with 1 & 2, and then lead into 8, which could conclude a movie if the season becomes two movies. 11 focuses on Nala Se and could fit in there too. 3 and 12 follow Crosshair’s journey, and might belong here. We’ll see where the rest of the season goes but it looks like this is a one-movie affair for now.

6, with Gungi, is OK, but a bit standalone. 5 and 13 feature Phee, which might become important later. And 9 and 10 might fill out the first of two movies, if trimmed, because they do have some good character work for Omega and Tech, plus they set up the Batch leaving Cid.

Season one could be two movies, but I’ll do the promised deeper research on it soon.

Hell yeah, great to have you back! Really interested to hear more of your plans.

I’ve been thinking a little more about a potential movie from the start of the show. NO PROMISES, as ever!

As Smudger and others have observed, it’s right that there’s a focus on Ahsoka meeting Anakin, plus the Clones, for a movie that follows AOTC. For that reason, the core should be the movie’s Christophsis content and the Domino Swuad arc. But I think we also need to focus a bit more heavily on Ahsoka’s early character development, which suggests Malevolence and Cloak of Darkness, and both of those feature Grievous and Ventress respectively, which I think fleshes out the plot nicely.

That way, you get the core three Jedi, a clone focus, and all of the main villains working together toward a single goal. I count thirteen main sequences across those episodes, ordered so the plot works and so the characters flow naturally through it:

1. (Malevolence) Plo Koon is shot down by Grievous’ massive ship (the “emergency”), possibly as a cold open.
2. (Hidden Enemy) Anakin and Obi-Wan, on Christophsis, are ambushed and track Ventress, discovering an invasion.
3. (Cloak of Darkness) Dooku pulls Ventress away from Christophsis since Gunray’s been captured.
4. (Movie) Anakin and Obi-Wan struggle against the invasion.
5. (Movie) Ahsoka is delivered to Christophsis (warning of the “emerency”), and helps Anakin win the day. Obi-Wan leaves.
6. (Malevolence) Anakin and Ahsoka rescue Plo. (I might pepper more scenes of Plo earlier than this, but the main conclusion comes here.)
7. (Domino Squad) The Domino Squad fail their training. (Intercut with the previous.)
8. (Malevolence) The Malevolence targets a medical station and is destroyed by the three Jedi. Grievous escapes. (I might actually cut this or leave it for a later conclusion. With the prior content leaving Grievous on the loose, that lines up nicely with his suprise appearance later.)
9. (Cloak of Darkness) Ahsoka returns to Luminara, and interrogates Gunray.
10. (Domino Squad) The squad are beaten by Grievous’ forces on the Rishi moon.
11. (Cloak of Darkness) Ventress comes for Gunray, Ahsoka survives, and Ventress escapes with Gunray (intercut with the above). (Add dialogue to have Ahsoka’s interrogation yield the Rishi hint for Rex.)
12. (Domino Squad) Rex comes to Rishi, and rescues Domino Squad. They learn of Grievous’ Kamino attack.
13. (Domino Squad) Everyone except Ahsoks goes to destroy or defend Kamino.

There’s a new tab in my spreadsheet you guys can look at if you want to dig into this further.

There are a few good scenes with the right people who can help bridge some of this. And potentially a few good ways to string it together. The Malevolence attacks are now more of a distraction to panic the Republic (“emergency!”) into helping enable the Rishi-Kamino strike.

The main issue is in focusing the first half of the film. You need to introduce the Malevolence threat early, and it’s useful to give Ventress a good reason to get off Christophsis, but then it feels a bit busy to also introduce all-new clones at the start in addition to all this - though you do want to give the 501st enough time to get from Kamino to Rishi.

I’d be really interested to get more brains on this.

Oh wow, that’s amazing!

This is so, so elegant. Not only does it give the audience much-needed information in a sensible in-story way, it actually smooths things out with the dreadnought line. Really impressive, a huge value add.

Hooray! That’s excellent to hear. I don’t currently plan to add subtitles, though they have been requested a lot. I don’t know how much work they’d take, which is why it’s not something I’ve picked up. Does anyone know how to create/edit subtitle tracks? I’d be starting from scratch.

Just looking at work commitments for the next short while, it looks like I won’t have the time to create an Episode 2 focus thread in the short term. If anyone wants to put something together please be my guest!

For Rebels I guess it depends on whether you’re interested in the journey of the Darksaber too- you could probably get away with finding a list online that tells you any episode featuring either Maul or Mandalore.

Yep, I’ve got a Mando-focused cut of my TCW:R edit, available from the spreadsheet.

Maybe Palpatine is the one that gives Anakin the information that his mum’s at risk, actually putting him on the path to finding that she’s been kidnapped (which leads to him slaughtering them)?

Yeah, good shout Peter Pan, especially on the lightsaber fight reordering. It’d feel a lot more punchy if we took out that moment of downtime where Obi-Wan’s just waiting behind the gates - it should be that they drop while he’s at his most emotional, prompting him to fight in a way that Maul then exploits to quickly send him down the pit.

And regarding the Padmé capture, I do have a shot available which bridges those two scenes. By zooming (aggressively) on Gunray turning toward the door (originally after it opens) and playing the door opening sound effect, we can then transition to Padmé walking in, then continue from the next part of the zoomed shot (but unzoomed this time).

To be honest, I’ve done very little music editing. I don’t know if this is the right approach, but I’d assume that it’s best to get the scene order working, then see where the music needs to fit, then tweak the whole to ‘feel’.

Ah yes, for certain. Haven’t thought about that in the slightest yet.

Hal 9000 said:

I agree it’s good on paper but there are a few points, most prominent being going to the Gunguns being marched around in surrender.

Apologies, I can’t quite parse what you’re saying here- can you clarify?

Ooh, one other thought: I don’t like the brief cutaway to the Neimoidians coming so early, since there are a few cutaways in that section (one other brief one where the droid control ship is seen before activating the droids to fight the Gungans), so it adds yet another bit of cognitive load.

But what if they’re looking at something else before demanding droidekas? What if the viewscreen could be modified to show them watching one of the otherwise-cut shots of Padmé making her way through the palace? That way it’s part of her plot without us having to linger on her party’s travel, and it leads nicely into her capture as it’s not so much earlier than those scenes.

I think I’m going to return to seeing what can be done to really smooth out all the final act, further refining the ideas here and then here (link contains latest version of the scene).

I think there are a few things I still need to work on:

• Potentially a new line during the hangar shootout to have one of Padmé’s guards say something like “I’ve received a report that the gungans have surrendered! We HAVE to make it to Gunray!” Ideally Anakin hears this, which is why he then activates his ship to shoot the droidekas that threaten Padmé’s crew, preceding his decision to join the space fight.
• Bridging the two Padmé capture scenes into one slightly longer one, and placing it after Maul kills Qui-Gon. (I’d use a zoomed 4K shot to get a good bridging reaction of Gunray as the doors open to reveal captured Padmé.)
• Make some of Rogueleader’s suggested changes to Anakin’s space combat, having the out-of-control spin early by mistake as Anakin’s still rough with the controls, and then the deliberate spin into the hangar as Anakin takes confident control.
• I’m not sure about having Qui-Gon communicating to Anakin through the force, probably it’s a step too far, and I don’t think I can make a better version of this, but I’m still a little on the fance.

I think I’d like to reorder the whole like this (changes to prior ideas in bold):

PLAN: Gungan army draws out droid army, allowing Padmé’s crew to infiltrate the city and palace. Jedi will move to capture Gunray (plan A) whilst pilots move to take out the droid control ship (plan B).

1. Gungans and droids face off on the plains, droid tanks fail to breach Gungan shields, so droids are activated and enter shields, close combat begins.
2. Padmé’s team and Jedi infiltrate the city, Neimoidians show suprise and request defensive droidekas, team makes it into the palace hangar.
3. Gungan battle turns bad as the droidekas take out their cavalry and the shields, Gungans attempt to flee.
4. Pilots are freed and we follow them up into space and first combat with the droid control ship.
5. Gungans surrender. (Now we have one less thing to think about - they were a distraction anyway plus the characters we care about least in this sequence - and jeopardy hangs over the other plots.)
6. Padmé’s team become aware that the Gungans are captured, and restate the plan to get to Gunray in the throne room, and they move to do that.
7. Maul appears and the Jedi step in to deal with him; Padmé’s team must go alone. (First plan change. Maul’s presence changes everything - with only the Jedi, the capture of Gunray would have been near certain. If Maul were to defeat the Jedi, the palace plot would be a near certain loss. Everything on the ground hinges on this fight.)
8. Droidekas in the hangar block Padmé (Jeopardy for plan A that the Jedi can’t solve) so Anakin activates his ship to deal with that; Padmé’s team run into the palace. (With Padmé’s crew moving through the palace for an unspecified amount of time, we don’t need to follow this plot until we choose.)
9. Anakin heads into space, stating his intention to help. (He recognises that plan A is in full jeopardy, so joins plan B.)
10. Maul/Jedi battle continues from the hangar into the power room. (The Jedi/Sith appear evenly matched.)
11. Anakin joins the battle in space, determined to help but less obviously skilled.
12. Maul/Jedi battle continues into the forcefield gates, they all pause. (We get a beat here for an extended focus on Anakin).
13. Anakin grows in obvious competence, and enters the droid control ship - but his ship fails. (This plotline’s in jeopardy, so everything hinges on Padmé’s team, or hopefully the Jedi’s victory.)
14. Maul/Jedi battle continues, Qui-Gon is killed. (Apparent failiure. But because Obi-Wan is behind the wall, we can also pause from this plotline for a beat or two.)
15. Padmé’s team (running) get captured by droidekas (requested by Gunray, making him seem more competent). Flow straight from these shots directly into-
16. Padmé’s team are brought to Gunray. “Your little resurrection is at an end.” (This was the last hope for Plan A, so the mission seems to have failed. Definitely a loss unless we can get a Jedi back in play.)
17. Obi-Wan fights Maul, but ends up hanging in the pit. (Lowest point, least hope.)
18. Anakin turns his ship back on, destroys the droid control ship, and escapes. (Hope returns as if from nowhere).
19. Gungans are freed, and cheer. Brief high for this plotline, but no mission victory yet-
20. Padmé’s team capture Gunray. The army and Gunray are defeated, thanks to Anakin, but Maul’s still a threat to our main characters on the ground
21. Obi-Wan’s being taunted by Maul’s sparks, but jumps up and bisects him. Qui-Gon’s death scene follows. Now that the mission is complete, we see the cost of victory.
22. Endings.

Looks good to me on mobile!

Oh man I love these! Such added value.